Electric compensator



Julie 19,1945. Y R JASSE 2,378,555

ELECTRIC COMPENSATOR Filed July 1, 1942 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 I n ve ntor- 1 Raymond Jose 1h dasse @y: Mama.

' A ttornegs June 19, 1945. R. J. JASSE ELECTRIC COMPENSATOR 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 1, 1942 fare/11am- Pagmond Joseph Jasse Aria/we s' June 19, 1945; R. J. JASSE 55 ELECTRIC COMPENSATOR [/7 Ve/Ifar:

Attorn ys Patented June 19, 1945 Raymond Joseph Jasse, Vichy, F ance; vested the Alien Property Custodian Application'luly 1, 1942, Serial No. 449,539

3' Claims. (01. 177-386) The present invention has for object an electric compensator for apparatus for locating sounds inspaoe by means of a set of receivers or microphones distributed all around the compensator and i'n'the circuits of which are inserted electric. elements or cells of variable retardation, com- .posed of a coil shunted by a capacity, said elemerits being 'so chosen that to any direction of sound can correspond a combination of said elements intended to ensure the placing in phase of all the electric currents issuing from the receiv ers. The compensator is actuated in orderto obtain a maximum amplitude of the sound corresponding to the placing in phase of the'microphone currents and the combination. oi'retarding elements thus obtained then gives the indication of the direction of the sound. e

Apparatus of this type is known in which th compensator comprises a collector formed by a flat plate capable of rotating about' a central spindle at right angles to its plane-which is at the same time the central point of compensation for all the receiversand on one face of which are secured rectilinear electric contact blades, of the same width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but electrically insulated from each other.

Each of the contact blades of the collector is connected to one of the retarding cells mounted in parallel between two wires to form together an artificial line of uniform retardation, the two wires of which. are connected to the inputof an amplifier, at the output of. which is connected the listening-in apparatus, for instance a loudspeaker.

The wiper brushes are distributed on the flat surface of the collector so as to form a geometrical figure which must be a true reduction of the real geometrical figure formed in plan, by the receivers distributed all around the compensator.

It is known that in this arrangement, the set of receivers is compensated when the axis of symmetry of the collector-which is at right angles to the direction of the bladesforms with the axis of the geometrical figure formed by the brushes, an angle equal to that made by the direction in which the sound is propagated with the axis of the geometrical figure formed by the set of receivers.

Compensators having a flat collector have the serious inconvenience that it is mechanically very diflicult to simultaneously or separately displace the wiper brushes to adapt the compensator to the variations of the speed of the sound according to the medium of its propagation, ontheione hand, and to the shape of formed by the receivers, on the other hand.

As regards this latter pointfit is; known that, for instance on a'ship,'the installation of the microphones can be but rarely rigorouslyin conformity-with a'pre-established'plan; for obtaining perfect similitude between the geometrical figure formed by the. receivers and that formed by the wiper brushes of the compensator, one is thereforeledto fix the position of said brushes according to the assemblage. of the receivers.

Moreover, a compensator already in service can only be replaced by another compensator at the expense of costly andlaborious transformations. In order to adapt the compensator to the different speeds of sound, the geometrical figure.

formed by: the wiper brushes must be homotheth cally enlarged or=reduced relatively to the plan of the geometrical figure formed by all thereoeiv ers, and this, can only be done by. radiallydisplacing the brushes relatively to the centre of rotation of the collector which is at the same time the centre of compensation "for all the receivers. Nowrfor, efiecting the rapidadaptation of the compensatorto the medium of the propagation of the-sound, it is necessary that the radial dis-v placement of all the brushes should take place simultaneously by means of a single operating knob,:which leads to an extremely complicated,

costly andvery delicate mechanical device.

The object of the present invention is to remedy this in convenience; the problem consists in distributing the blades of the collector on the periphery of a cylinder in such a manner that the 35' adaptation of the compensator to'the medium of propagation of the sound can be obtained by a simultaneous axial displacement of the brushes,

- contact blades oithe same'width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but electrically insulated from eachother; the cylindrical collector according to the-invention can be obtained by dividing the flat collectorjinto-a certain number of annular elements-by equidistant circles concentric with the centre/of; rotation of--- saidfiat collector and byenlargingsaid annular elements withthe fractions of blades they carryyproportionally up to the diameter Qf the outerucircle, or'by reducing said Y annularelements and their. fractions of the. geometrical figure.

blades Z.

blades down to the diameter of the inner circle, the cylindrical shape of the collector then resulting from an equidistant superposition of the enlarged or reduced elementary circles.

The accompanying drawings show a form of construction of a collector according to the invention.

Fig. 1 illustrates a flat collector divided into elementary circles.

Fig. 2 illustrates the origin of a cylindrical collector according to the invention by the superposition of enlarged or reduced annular elements.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a collector constructed according to the data of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to that ofrFig. 3, but ofiset to the extent of 90 relatively to the latter.

Fig. 5 is a cross section made according to line V--V of Fig. 3.

. Fig. 6 shows in vertical section a diagrammatic view of a unit constituted by a compensator provided with the new collector.

Figs. '7 and 8 show in front view and side view a modification of the support for the brushes.

Figs. 9 and 10 show a preferred embodiment of the object of the invention.

As shown in Fig. 1, the fiat collector which serves as base for the construction of the cylindrical collector according to the invention, comprises a certain number of rectilinear contact blades 1, of the same width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but insulated from each other. Each of the blades is electrically connected to a retarding cell, composed of a coil S and of a capacity C and all the cells are inserted in parallel. in an artificial line of uniform retardation, constituted by two wires b and 0 respectively connected to the input terminals d1, d2 of an amplifier A, the output terminals e1 and e: of which are connected to the terminals of a loud-speaker HP.

On the contact blades Z rub a numberof contact brushes f diagrammatically illustrated in the figure. The arrangement of all the brushes forms a geometrical figure indicated in dotted lines and which must be the true reduction of the plan of the geometrical figure formed by all the microphone receivers not shown. Each receiver is connected by a conducting wire to one of said contact brushes 1.

The plate carrying the contact blades 1 is rotatively mounted about a centre 0' which must exactlycoincide with the centre 0 of the compensation for all the microphone receivers. X-X designates the axis of symmetry of the collector, at right angles to the direction of the contact Y-Y is the axis of the figure formed by all the wiper brushes 1 and which must be set exactly as the axis of the plan of the figure formed by all the microphone receivers. It will be seen that the set of receivers will be compensated when the angle formed by XX and Y-Y is equal to the angle formed by X-X with the axis of the figure formed by all the receivers.

For converting the flat collector according to Fig. 1, on which the wiper brushes f must be radially displaced to adapt the compensator to the speed of propagation of the sound, into a cylindrical collector on which the same adaptation is effected by an axial displacement of the wiper brushes, said flat collector is divided into annular zones by equidistant circles gr, 9'2, g3, g4 etc., up to the circle of maximum compensation G. Each of the circles g1," g2, g3, g4 etc., is then enlarged up to the diameter of the circle G, that is to say that the points of intersection of said circles with the edges of the contact blades Z are radially transferred on to the circle G, which is assumed to correspond to the diameter of the cylindrical collector it is desired to obtain (Fig. 2).

Taking for instance the inner circle g1, the points of intersection hl, h2, 77.3, 114, ha and he are radially transferred on to the circle G, on which are then obtained the points i1, i2, i3, i4, i5 and is, the enlarged distribution of which is exactly the same.

The same method of procedure is adopted for all the circles g2, Q's, g4, up to the circle of maxi mum compensation G, and the points thus found 'on the circle G for each of the circles g2, g3, 94 are respectively projected on equidistant superposed planes Z1, Z2, Z3, Z4, parallel to the'aXis oi symmetry X--X of the flat collector.

The lateral elevation of the cylindrical collector shown in Fig. 2 results therefrom, whereas the points found on the circle of maximum compensation G correspond to the exact position of each of said points on the periphery of the cylindrical collector.

Fig. 3 shows in side elevation the unit constituted by a cylindrical collector thus obtained, seen in the direction of the arrow F1 of Fig. 1, Whereas Fig. 4 is a similar elevation, but seen in the direction of the arrow F2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 shows in cross section the setting of the axis of symmetry XX of the collector.

The mathematical translation of the two conditions to be satisfied by the collector according to the invention: Measurement of the azimuth of the sound by a circular movement of the wiper brushes in a plane at right angles to the axis of the cylindrical collector,

Modification by axial displacement, of the ratio of similitude between the figure formed in plan by all the microphone receivers and that of the wiper brushes in view of adapting the compensator to a variation of the speed of the sound,

will also be advantageously effected by taking as a basis the consideration that the cylindrical collector according to the invention is obtained by a particular transformation of a flat collector having rectilinear and parallel blades.

In this case, a basis can be taken on the fact that, for satisfying the'first condition, it is necessary that, in a plane at right angles to the axis of the cylindrical collector, the distribution of the contact blades should be such that the interval 6c between the axes of two adjacent blades projected on the axis X -X is constant (Fig. 5)

The end blades Zx of the cross section cc (Fig. 3) define on the artificial line of retardation two positions separated by a r designating the retardation per cell. The cross section cc (Fig. 3) is therefore suitable for the brush of a microphone location at Rc from the centre of compensation, if:

a 6,, in other words, if

aDr 2R,

Likewise, the cross section dd is suitable for number of cells SC acre-55s the brush of a microphone located at a distance RdfroIn-the centre, if i v 1Dr QFQRd nd as a, p nd r re constant it will be seen that. general y s eakin R is reversely proportional to I now the speed of the sound varies and becomes equal to a, the brushes must be moved acc rding to a s n atr x of the .collectorto brin them on new cros s ction c and in whioh the intervals a'Dr hand being constants.

It results therefrom that if the intervals e are considered on the four cross sections cc, dr-cl, c -.ec',, d d, the following equations are obtained:

IBy dividing sid or side t e quat o 3 y the Equation and Equation 4 by Equati n .one obtains: v

and

Now, it is necessary that 6, a 6 therefo e hat I fil e-rc) o '-fl 2 consequently:

This proves that it suffices to move all the brushes along their generatrix to the same extent This operation is very easy to elfect mechanically; it sufiices that all the brushes should be mounted on a common support which can slide along the axis of the collector.

This arrangement has been obtained in th embodiment of the compensator. according to the invention diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 6.

However, in this arrangement, the block of wiper brushes 9 receives the setting movement as a bearing whereas the collector 4 receives the longitudinal movement of translation allowing to adapt it to the speed of sound. Between two plates I is mounted a shaft 2 which is fixed and on which is mounted by means of the bracing 3 the collector! according to the invention. The block :3. can slide along the shaft :2 in the guide 5. owing to the nut 6 and the screw 1 controlled bya fly-wheel 8. The brushes are mounted, for instance in thermanner described. on the block 9 the rotation .of which is controlled by the operating fiy-wheel I 0. A ring. collector H allows of supplying current to the brushes.

- Without departing from the principle of the invention, devices might also be imagined in which the block of brushes or the collector receives the two movements of translation and of setting, the other member being then completely stationary:

Figs. 7 and 8 show a particular assembla e f the wiper brushes. Saidbrushes of square cross section, are made of car n of high copp r con nt. They slide in atubular metallic i e 3.6 covered with an insulating tu 3 d os at one end by a beaded cover 38.

[The brush 35 is connected by a flexible wire to a terminal 39,. and it is pressed against the surface of the collector by a coil spring 40. The uiding tube 36 and its insulating sheath 37 are clamped in a slotted-metallic block 4|.

.said'block is slidable in a groove 33 formed in a supporting upright 33a and in which it can be-secured in a given position by a foundation plate and two screws 44. The sliding movement oflf'block 4| causes the brush 35 to slide axially on the upright 33a. Its position in the osition by the screw. 61.

groove 33 depends on thehorizontal distance between thecorresponding microphone receiver and the centre of compensation O of all the receivers.

The runner indicating the position is formed by the up r edge of the block 4|. The graduation carried, by the supportin upright 33a indicates the distance- Figs. 9 and .10 show a preferred embodiment of the compensator forming the subject-matter or the invention. Q i

Two rectangular plates 56 and 51 (see Fig. 9) braced byfour columns 58 form a rigid cage in the form-or a parallclepipedon. i

v Between the plates 56 and 51 freely rotates a central shaftis which carries all the rotating members ofthe compensator. The shaft rests on an abutment, not shown, located in the recess of the lower plate 51. I

On shaft .59 are mounted, starting from h top, the following members (see Fig. 10) which rotate therewith: v

rings 60 which is keyed on the'shaftand held in (b) Acircular plate ,lii secured onthe square shoulder of the shaft.

(c) A cylindrical sleeve 63 keyed onthe shaft and which supports the following members:

1. A circular plate 64 similar to plate 6.2 and secured by the screws 65.

2. A toothed ring 66. Said ring serves for driving the shaft and also as a support for the relay terminals l2 between the blades of the collector and the artificial line.

3. A compensating collector l3 which is keyed on the sleeve 63 and held in position by a ring screw threaded at the lower part.

The two circular plates 62 and 64 are braced by four right-angle members l5. It is between these two plates that the boxes l6 are mounted containing the elements of the artificial line.

Fig. 10 clearly shows the securing of said boxes on the right-angle members I 5 by means of yokes l1 and-screws l8; the boxes carry a stud which (mi The .output line collector having thre engages in the holes provided for that purpose on the square part of the shaft. The boxes are distributed in four piles. V

Each box is'constituted by two symmetrical half-boxes assembled by three screws. The four terminals are grouped on a small plate fitted between the two half-boxes.

On the upper circular plate 62 is secured a cylindrical compass-card IS in four equal sectors centered by a tongue engaging in a groove of the plate and secured by screws 20. The sectors are connected together at their lower part by small screwed reinforcing plates 2|.

The compass-card carries two graduations: one, continuous, from to 360, and the other in two parts from 0 to 180 in reverse direction.

The bearing of the receivers is read on one or the other of said graduations opposite the pointers of the frame 22 screwed on the upper plate 56 of the cage.

From the rings of the output line collector 60 lead flexible wires which pass through the plate 55 in grooves formed in the shaft.

The members connected to the cage are:

The brush-carrying sleeve 23 and its accessories (see Figs. 9 and 10). The sleeve 23 is centered on the shaft 59; it supports a graduated circular ring 24 having a groove, and held on the arms of the sleeve by the screws 25. The fixed setting of the sleeve relatively to the cage is ensured by the finger 26 rigid with the lower plate 51. The rectilinear sliding movement of the sleeve is obtained by the screw having square threads 21 driven by the grooved plate 28 and the train of pinions 29 and 30.

The pinion 30 carries a, graduated drum 3! which allows of locating the vertical position of the ring 24 which is read opposite the index 32 rigid with the lower plate 51. The graduation is expressed in speed of sound.

The ring 24 is concentric with the compensating collector, it carries grooved uprights 33 which are secured by their base by means of screws 34.

A line engraved on the base allows of locating the position of the upright along the graduation in degrees of the ring 24; Finally, the section of the passage-way of the screw 34 allows of locking the upright at any angle. a

The angle of lead of an upright is moreover equal to the angle formed by the corresponding radius of the microphone (that is to say the line which joins the projected centre of the diaphragm of said microphone, and the centre of compensation O of the group) with the frontrear axis of the structure; said angle is counted from the front and in the usual direction of the bearings.

I claim: I

1. Process for obtaining an tor collector for apparatus for locating sounds, starting from a. flat collector capable of rotating about an axis at right angles to its plane and carrying rectilinear contact blades, of the same width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but electrically insulated from each other, consisting in dividing said flat collector into a certain number of annular elements by equidistant circles concentric with the centre of rotation of said flat collector, in enlarging said annular elements with the fractions of blades they carry proportionally up to the diameter of an outer circle of maximum compensation, and in then superposing said annular elements at equidistant intervals to form a cylinder.

2. Process for obtaining an electric compensator collector for apparatus for locating sounds, starting from a flat collector, capable of rotating about an axis at right angles to its plane and carrying rectilinear contact blades, of the same width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but electrically insulated from each other, consisting in dividing said flat collector into a certain number of annular elements by equidistant circles concentric with the centre of rotation of said flat collector, in reducing said annular elements with the fractions of blades they carry, proportionally down to the diameter of an inner circle of minimum compensation and in then superposing said annular elements at equidistant intervals to form a cylinder.

3. Process for obtaining an electric compensator collected for apparatus for locating sounds, starting from a flat collector, capable of rotating about an axis at right angles to its plane and carrying rectilinear contact blades, of the same width, parallel to each other, contiguous, but electrically insulated'from each other, consisting in dividing said flat collector into a certain;

number of annular elements by equidistant circles concentric with the centre of rotation of said fiat collector, in reducing a part of said annular elements with the fractions of blades they carry, proportionally down to the diameter of any intermediary circle, in enlarging the other part of said annular elements with the' fractions of blades they carry proportionally up to the diameter of said intermediary circle and in then superposing said annular elements at equidistant intervals to form a cylinder.

RAYMOND JOSEPH JASSE.

electric compensa-- 

